Virgin Trains has led Britain's charge in becoming the fastest-growing railway in Europe, according to figures published today.As Virgin Trains celebrates its 10th birthday, it announced that the number of journeys made on its routes has risen by a staggering 61.5 per cent, outstripping the national average of 40 per cent.The two Virgin Trains franchises – Virgin West Coast and Virgin CrossCountry – have seen some of the biggest increases in passenger numbers in Europe, with new trains, faster and more frequent services and innovative ticketing all attracting millions more passengers.

In the last 12 months more than 42 million journeys have been made with Virgin Trains – 16 million more than when the company began in 1997.

Virgin CrossCountry has seen massive growth of 75 per cent since 1997, with passenger numbers up from 12 million to 21 million, while on Virgin West Coast passenger numbers are up 39 per cent from 14 million to 19.4 million.

On Virgin CrossCountry's 10th birthday Managing Director Chris Gibb said: "We've taken a route that had ageing trains, infrequent services and long journey times and turned it into a modern, high-speed service with brand new trains and a turn-up and go timetable. Everyone at Virgin Trains has worked really hard to improve our service and we are proud that our customers now rely on us to deliver them to their destination on time and in comfort."

As a birthday thank you to customers Virgin Trains has given away 10,000 free tickets through its website.

Customers have been enticed back to rail following the introduction of two new train fleets and a vastly improved timetable. The number of Virgin CrossCountry weekday services has been increased to run half-hourly from Birmingham to Newcastle, Reading, Manchester and Bristol and hourly to Edinburgh, Carlisle and Plymouth. The Virgin West Coast timetable has been improved with the Manchester-London service revamped to run every 30 minutes. In the last three years our share of the London-Manchester air/rail market has risen dramatically from 38 per cent to 61 per cent.

The Voyager and Pendolino fleets have revolutionised train travel across the network and have slashed journey times. The Pendolino trains on Virgin West Coast decelerate using regenerative braking, which returns power to the National Grid providing enough electricity to power 13,750 homes for a year. In a further environmental initiative Virgin Trains is now working with our partners to develop a biofuel for use with the Voyager trains on Virgin CrossCountry.

In the last ten years Virgin Trains has been at the forefront of innovation within the UK's rail network.

Virgin was the first to offer a dedicated full internet booking service, and also introduced Virgin Value advanced purchase fares to give more customers a better deal. Since July 2004 more relaxed booking conditions have helped increase the number of these tickets sold by 40 per cent.

Virgin Trains also recently launched heavily discounted Print@home tickets on the Birmingham-London and Manchester-London routes. These are discounted tickets that are printed at home for use on pre-specified services.

The latest independent Passenger Focus survey shows overall customer satisfaction at 90 per cent on Virgin West Coast – the best of all High-Speed long distance operators. For attitude and helpfulness of staff to customers Virgin CrossCountry came top with 82 per cent.